When I'm looking at my posts, my avatar doesn't show up- does anyone else see it, and does anyone know what would prevent it from showing? I've checked the link, and if I navigate directly to the image and then come back, it'll show up once, but then no more!

ShadowHippie

Just to make sure the path was right I just had a look at your image on the site where it is. It came up fine. (That's your own site is it?). Having done that I came back here and your avatar looked fine.

Maybe it just needed a good looking at.

nope, I can't see it either but what happens is that some sites don't allow you to take images ... I think geocities is one which is where your image is linked from. Try somewhere else

TellyWellie, that's what I was trying to describe. It won't show, then I go to geocities and look at it- where it loads fine- then I come back here and it shows. On that page only- as soon as I go somewhere else to post, or read an old post, it's not showing up!

SH

Hmm ..I'm seeing it OK everywhere now and that's after deleting the temporary internet file folder, so it can't be in cache. Try pressing F5 to give the page a refresh and see what happens.

At first I didn't see a picture. Then I visited the website containing the original and it showed up at FT as well. But then I deleted a jpg called 28 from my Temporary Internet Files (assuming that that was your picture, considering the date it landed on my computer and all) and now I cannot see your picture anymore.
So I think it does have to do with cache...

This is weird! The picture is showing up when I first open a thread (although it's not in my Temporary Internet Files anymore), but when I refresh the page it disappears again...

[after closing and re-opening my browser, the picture is nowhere to be seen...]

Yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about- it's very weird.

SH

The only thing I can find wrong with the image is that it measures 98x100 pixels when it should be 80x80 pixels to fit exactly into the space next to your name. This really shouldn't make that much difference but it is being squashed a bit to fit.

Something is ringing a bell here about an jpeg image I had ages ago that I couldn't get to display properly. I'm not saying this is the same thing but in the end I think I had to re-make the image and save it again. This time it was OK ...although both were jpegs.

A remedy might be to resample the image so that it was 80x80 pixels, save it and then upload that one.

Just one little tip if you do. Save it under a different name and change the reference to it in the 'My Home' page. I often have difficulty on my website getting an html or image file to update under the same file name.

shadowhippie, in Geocities' Terms of Service it says:

"You agree to not use the Service to:
(...)
(o) use your home page (or directory) as storage for remote loading or as a door or signpost to another home page, whether inside or beyond Yahoo GeoCities; "

So it's possible that Geocities simply makes it impossible for you to link to your picture...

I didn't know that about Geocities. So if you rent some web space there you can't refer to an image on it?

I'm not sure, but it certainly looks like it...! I did a little research on where other FT members store their images. The only persons I could find that link to Geocities are janie_eva and snow_dog and their pictures aren't showing either.

There actually are quite some people with pictures that are not showing, and they probably don't notice it themselves, because it's cached on their computers.

That is a bit limiting with Geocities if that is the case. A image would need storing somewhere else under those circumstances.

I've noticed the blank image spaces too. I wonder if the site where the images are stored change the references to them occasionally to stop them being linked to.

I'm still seeing shadowhippy's image all the time. If I delete the image from the temporary internet files folder it gets downloaded again next time it is called on. I can then see it in all pages. Very peculiar!

When you have a Geocities website, you can link to a picture stored in that same web space, so you can build a website as usual. But if you happen to own two Geocities websites you cannot link from website A to a picture that is stored on website B....

Angelfire does a similar trick to pictures, so when you link to a picture hosted by them, they show you a picture saying "image hosted by Angelfire" instead of the original one!

I am now really going to confuse the lot of you, I can see the image without any difficulty at all! I also see snow_dog's ( I forgotten the other name mentioned but I bet I can see that too!). I use an oldish version of Netscape, 4.79 and although it has some quirks, for instance I cannot see the blurb written at the top of the forums, I can view your images so they are linking.

I tried to see the pictures with IE 5, Netscape 6 and Opera 6.05 and no success...! Is it possible that Geocities and the like didn't bother to disable linking in older browser versions? Otherwise, I give up!

What's the advantage of places like Geocities and Anglefire over just an internert account with an ISP who gives you webspace but doesn't restrict anything.

I say anything but mine won't let you run a commercial site on the free webspace ...but other than that it's OK

I wonder why does Geocities have the rule about not linking.

I used to connect to the internet through a 56k modem and got some web-space to go with it. Now that I'm on cable internet I'm still using the space my old ISP provided, since I'm not getting any from my current one. If I had been on cable from day one, I guess I would have had to resort to Angelfire et al. So it might be more of a necessity than an advantage...

The only reason I can think of for the non-linking rule is that when you make visitors visit the entire site, they get to see the ads on it as well. If lots of people only use their web-space for linking purposes, companies will be more hesitant to pay for advertising on the sites, since no one sees the ads.

Hiya..

I don't see your image either. I think a lot of those free webpage sites (geocities,angelfire,tripod) don't allow images to be seen when you link to them from another site unless you pay extra to get more 'membership perks'. That's my understanding of them...

Well I can't see your avatar either shadow.

I think it would be a good idea for members to check whether it is OK to link to where an image is stored. As we see, very often it appears not to be. That seems to go for most places where images are found.

Lots are free for personal use but they do not allow you not to link directly to their site from somewhere else to display it.

If the image is free of copyright restrictions or 'free for personal use' it should be moved to a place where linking to it is allowed.

If your web site host does not allow it, it can be moved to somewhere like www.ranchoweb.com, which I believe some FT members use. They host images and it should be OK to place your image there and link to it. A good place to check out anyway.

Tellywellies, THANK YOU! I went and signed up at Ranchoweb, uploaded the image there, and linked it up here. It worked immediately!

*doing the happy dance*

ShadowHippie

I'm glad that got it sorted shadowhippie. A good 'disappearing graphic' remedy then.

just testing out the ranchoweb site

edited, third time lucky, and it works! Good site, Tellies, thanks.

Well, in all honesty, I have to say that I knew of ranchoweb only because it had been mentioned in the forums by others a while back. There are other similar places out there too I expect. Give good old Google a try and type in: 'image hosting'. That should bring up a few.

So when is this young person (sorry Conor I mean, 'when are you') going to start making a valuable contribution to FT then

*edit* I should have spoken to 'young person' directly!